It is a brand new year (2025) and I have had my fair share of life lessons over the past few years. It seems like the last few years have been non-stop with one thing after another. I feel like I keep trying to catch my breath for air and I am not able to recover. The hits just keep on coming and they have not stopped. In the last few years, I have encountered the following:
- Losing Pets
- Losing My Father
- My Mom Battled For Her Life In The Hospital (by the grace of God she came through)
- Losing Both Of My Spiritual Mentors (Spiritual Mom & Spiritual Dad)
- Losing My Dream Job On My Son's Birthday (with no warning due to budget cuts)
- Having My Marriage Spiritually Attacked
- Slipping Into The Deepest Depression I have ever experienced
- Walking Super Close To God, to Stumbling so hard that I fell away from him.
It has been so overwhelming and it takes every bit of me to keep putting one foot in front of the other at times. This is life and I understand that there is a season for every activity under Heaven. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-11) I do not have the solution or the perfect answer, but the point of this post is to shed some light on how I have been navigating through some of the things I have mentioned above.
Important Life Lessons I Have Learned:
1) Daily Check-in with God- This means there is constant communication with prayer and sitting in silence. This means setting certain time aside daily and talking to your Heavenly Father. He already knows what you are going through and wants his son/daughter to seek him out first and foremost. Setting specific time aside for reading the Word. (Even if it is only a few scriptures).
2) Work On Yourself From Within- With all of these hits, I have struggled with self-confidence and my worth. It is important to have those difficult conversations with yourself and spend time reflecting on your thoughts (why do I think this way, what can I change about the way I think, how can I change the way I feel, etc). Many times it is easy to distract yourself and not have those difficult conversations with yourself. When you are at your darkest moment you have no strength to pull yourself up, but that is where God comes in. (Romans 5:8). It is easy to make excuses and blame others for actions but true growth comes when you spend the time examining yourself and see the areas in your life that need God most.
3) Work On Progress, Not Perfection- I am an All or Nothing person. There is no in-between with me. This can be an obstacle since I am never going to do everything according to plan. Here I learned to give myself grace and not be so hard on myself. God sees my heart and my intention and he knows I mean well. It is important to not be hard on yourself and watch the words that you speak to yourself. Words matter! (Proverbs 18:21). When it talks about a daily walk with God that means one step at a time. We are to walk hand in hand and not go ahead of him. I am not perfect, but you know who is? Jesus! Thank God I am not measured on my efforts or work. I had to remind myself to be kind to myself and to take it one day at a time and actually teach myself to not get discouraged if something didn't go according to plan. It is important to run the race and not sprint.
4) Light Casts Out All Darkness (John 1:5) - The enemy can make you feel defeated when you are getting hit daily with fiery darts. He can trick you into thinking that you are all alone and that there is no hope. He can even make you think that God doesn't hear you/see you/ or love you. In the middle of my pain, I found myself being so overwhelmed that I didn't have the strength to pray, read, or meditate on things that are pure, lovely, or true. I have read the Bible and I know what the Bible says, but during this darkness, I almost felt as if none of it applied to me, and that it was for someone else. I reminded myself that He will never leave me or forsake me (Hebrews 13:5-6). He sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24), I know that Jesus can identify with everything I am walking through (Hebrews 4:15). This is where it is important to surround yourself with Prayer Warriors and have people stand on their watchtower and pray/intercede on your behalf. It matters who you have in your inner circle, and you should choose your friends wisely. I honestly believe that because of their prayers, I was able to have the strength to keep going.
5) This Too Shall Pass (2 Corinthians 4:17-18) - This life is so short and at times we can think we have all of the time in the world to get right or fix something. We can get distracted and think that this is the only life we get to experience. This life is temporary and we are not guaranteed the next moment. We do not know when our time will end on earth. In Romans 8:18 it says "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us." We do not know what the next day holds, the next month holds, or the next year holds. We can only focus on the things we CAN control. God knows the beginning, middle, and end. We need to learn to fully trust him and let him lead us. You need to lift your head up keep your eyes focused on the eternal things and keep your eyes on Jesus. We come into this world with nothing and we will literally leave this world with nothing.
Through everything I have learned that we experience trials because it is part of a refining process. (Malachi 3:2-3). I am continually examining myself and have asked God to take away anything that is NOT of you. Sometimes I have my sin get in the way and that can be a hindrance to my prayers and block God's blessing. When I now go through a difficult season I remind myself that there is a lesson in this pain, and I can choose to ignore it or I can learn from it and grow stronger. If you notice we need to be on the offense during this process and not on the defense. We cannot react when we feel something (because our emotions are always going to be changing, and they are not reliable). This is where the training comes into play. What kind of training you ask? I am talking about Biblical training! This is where you take authority of every thought (2 Corinthians 10:5). We are instructed to get dressed spiritually daily (Ephesians 6:10-18) We need to be proactive in EVERY area of our life. We need to be alert when it comes to ourselves, our relationship with God, our marriage, raising our children, etc. We cannot afford to be caught off guard or deceived. Since time is so precious we don't know when our last moment on earth will be.
Habits I Started Implementing:
Check-in with God every morning! Start my day off in prayer, scripture, and praying for my family and making sure they are spiritually protected.
- Have grace towards myself and not be so hard on myself. If I mess up on something, to repent and try not to do it again.
- A hunger to be in the word more, have several resources to help break down the Bible for me and do independent studies so I can make sure I am strong in my faith walk.
- Learn to love and not waste time on my emotions. Putting God's Word above the way I feel.
In closing, this life is so hard and incredibly painful. We are going to have amazing times and difficult times while on earth. We need to remind ourselves that God is with us and sees the entire picture and we need to trust him no matter what! We cannot question his love for us, and we have a Savior who can identify with every single thing we will ever experience. Our goal is to get through this life and try to do it God's way and at the end of our life we will spend eternity with him and everything will have been worth it. I pray this post encourages you! I pray you were able to see my heart in why I shared this post and what I have been enduring the last couple of years. This year has started off horrible and it is only January. I am choosing to fix my mind on HIM and get my thoughts right. It will not continue downhill, and God has a plan and I trust that his timing is perfect!
Be blessed,
KatyRose
